Page 33 - آثار مصر الفرعونية الجزء الأول

representation on the lower part of the causeway was thought to
be unique for the time, and portrayed impoverished emaciated
foreigners (probably Bedu tribes) who were living a life of
famine and hardship. Unfortunately, parts of this scene were
missing and the explanation has been lost, but in recent years a
similar scene was found on older blocks from Sahure's causeway.
The scene appears to show the realities and hardships in Old
Kingdom Egypt and may also be connected with the "famine
stela" on Sehel Island at Aswan, which supposedly documents a
7-year famine during the reign of king Djoser.

On the upper part of the causeway a pair of boat-pits, 45m
long, were carved out of rock and encased in limestone blocks.

The survival of riverside pyramid structures had been poor,
often being used for the quarrying stone for construction of later
monuments and Unas's valley temple is no exception. It probably
lay at the side of a lake with a harbour and a quay to give access
to the causeway. In the 1970 Ahmad Musa continued the work of
former Egyptian archaeologists by excavating the lower parts of
the causeway and the valley temple. On a terrace of the temple he
found a greywacke sarcophagus, similar in style to those of
Menkaure and Shepseskaf, which contained a mummy of an
elderly man identified by an inscription on his golden belt as
'king's son, Ptahshepses'.

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